[What a wonderful day to travel the seas!]

It was a dark stormy night like any other. The ship floated back and forth along the waves and we sat in complete darkness. Figuratively of course. Our ship was quite armed to put on a light show if need be. However, despite all our glamouring lights, we were sailing into unknown territory.

But who cares if it was unmapped or full of danger? Frankly, I don't and neither should you. Plus look at our ship, it's big and has some wonderful exterior and interior design. From the gaping holes in the side to the bloody weeping walls inside, this ship was our wonderful stage.

However right now. This stage is empty. Not a single observable audience around. And it's raining. My outfit is drenched... I'm stuck here cleaning a ship dirtier than the insides of any sea beast.

So just like most nights and days, I mop, mop, mop, and mop. Despite being the captain... Well, leader of the group, I'm just mopping all this water.

[Damn it!]

With one powerful toss, I successfully threw my mop into the dark abyss. With accompanying thunder, the mop produced a powerful thumping splash.

Now let's begin the show. I marched towards the captain's room. Moving with me, my wet hands slammed onto the door and pushed it wide open.

You might ask what people in flashy outfits do in uncharted seas on a ship filled with bloody pagan symbols? And honestly, that's an easy question to answer.

[Wake up scum!]

I grabbed my obsidian guitar that was jammed onto the wall. With one flick of a level and one strum, a sound of despair echoed throughout the room.

*Hwooop!*

[Out of tune.]

I removed my glasses and slammed the guitar onto the floor. Upon impact, the dark room was filled with the color of my spectacular instrument. A dark crispy purple.

"Grah!" A man covered in soot and ash fell from the ceiling.

"What is wrong with your pea-sized brain!" He charged up from the ground and punched me in the arm. "You seriously need to stop being such a..." He stared off into the abyss, trying to find a word that he hadn't used before to describe me.

"What the hell! Seriously."

[Get ready Bass.] This ceiling-dwelling man was a band member of mine. He was a particular type of weirdo. In a world of normal people like me and my other crewmates, this guy was the oddballs of oddballs.

"I have a name you know!" He wore the weirdest of clothes as well. Leather pants and a white t-shirt. So weird.

[Yeah-yeah, and I don't have a drinking problem.]

I waved him off the room and spun my guitar above my head. I spun and spun it like one of those vortexes in the water. With precise precision and utmost delicacy, I slipped and tossed it into the air.

*Wham!*.

Surrounded by wooden planks, a bed, and a well-blanketed woman, my guitar fell to the ground. "Oww!" The woman clenched her head and rolled off her newly moved bed.

"Scarlet! You son of a gutted mouse!" She charged towards me and punched me in the arm but this time I dodged.

[Nice try Jean but your weak arms can not hit me.]

"You're such a... You." With her multiple belts around her body, she angrily stomped out of the room. Now let me describe her... I can't think of anything.

I raised my guitar once again and slammed it onto the ground producing a soundwave of immense bloodthirst. How wonderful. But nobody answered. I looked up at the ceiling full of holes.

It was empty. Devoid of life aside from the furniture that moaned at night. Which is cursed and not actually alive so it was in a sense not that devoid of life. I guess.

I slashed the door into two with my guitar and dashed into the middle of the ship. Looking around I saw my bandmates preparing their instruments.

[Hey Grim! Get over here!] I waved my hands at the burly gaint on the edge of the ship.

"Is it beginning?" With his deep rough gentle voice, he approached us. Equipped with bloodstained clothes and a butcher's apron, he carried his instruments on his back.

[Yes it is! Our audience is here!] From my spacious pockets, I grabbed a headless totem and crushed it with my foot.

*AAAAAHHHH!*

[That's a strong scream!] The thunder stopped and the rain became as silent as our hearts. With one flick of my guitar, the lights on our ship turned on.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Despite our blinding lights, the sky was still as dark as the desolate firmament. Not a single star in sight or any clouds of white. Just pure darkness.

I tuned my guitar and flipped all the levels on the side. Wearing a scarlet vest, red baggy pants, and a huge white bow on my head, I tapped the bottom of my guitar.

[One Two Three, Go!]

To answer your earlier question, flashy people who sail on uncharted seas in cursed demonic ships perform. They perform for who you might ask. Well...

*AAAAAAAHHH!*

Tentacles slammed onto the ship, constraining it in place. Rotting insects circled us like vultures. And the shadows danced in our peripheral vision.

We perform for incomprehensible horrors beyond our mental capabilities and mortal souls of course!

[Are you demons ready?!]

*AAAAHHHHHH HEEELP HAHAAHAHAH!*

[I can't hear you!]

*Bzzt*

I turned to my bandmates and winked. It was time to put on a show for these freaks.

I banged my fingers onto my strings and with every strum and tap, I produced a scarlet light. Scarlet lights that pierced the very heavens. Not to brag but I was definitely the star of our band. My skill was next to none, not even the gods above could challenge me in my unstoppable fury.

Playing alongside me was my bandmates, all performing at their greatest. We were all veterans in this industry, after all. With years of experience in facing these monstrosities, we were at the very top in terms of popularity, richness, and most of all, skill. No mind-breaking entity could shake our spirits.

And honestly, we deserved every penny earned by this band.

Jean our lead vocalist and pianist was pleasing as always. Her eccentric rhythmic tapping of each key and her powerful voice was bursting through the atmosphere. She was not only blessed with perfect memory, but she had talent etched deep into her fingers all the way to her vocal cords. With every tap she performed, a surge of electricity blasted everywhere.

Grim was a killer in not only the hunt but also the drums. With his wild sense of passion and his violent rapid strikes, he rumbled the entire atmosphere. Using his massive stature and his nonstop practice he shook the audience with his presence. With every slash and blow he executed, he evoked sound waves that knocked out the screams and the jarring smell of flesh away.

Bass was our bassist. He was good.

Performing song after song, our audience grew larger and more violent. With holes from the underworld forming around us accompanied by ghosts of our relatives asking us to come with them, we were reaching our finale.

A song all about me.

[Woo hoo!] With multiple guitar solos in this song, I readied my body and hopped all around the ship. Playing while passing all the eldritch beings was none other than the star of this song.

I grinded my fingers into the strings. Vibrating them faster than any guitarist had ever had. My eyes were dyed scarlet and my energy was through the roop. Maybe it was the atmosphere or maybe it was the immense adrenaline in my blood but I kinda jumped onto the audience.

Let me tell you something. It is never safe to crowd-ride your own fans. And this statement was even truer when your audience was intergalactic beings capable of erasing realities on a whim.

But nonetheless, I was still performing. Jumping straight into the abyssal hole of slime, flesh, and death, I was showered with glimpses of the very truth of my false reality.

Thankfully I was too busy admiring my own reality-breaking guitar skill. I was so good, my hands were made and molded by the creators of the stars. I was a God. And these horrors were nothing to me.

I played and I played. I didn't need to hear my fellow band members. As long as I had a guitar and myself I can play all I can... That is what I hoped.

But you never do get what you want. As time continued in this neverending free fall, my hands began to shake and freeze from the trillions of gazes fixed on me. My eyes began to bleed blood as my eardrums exploded with mucus everywhere.

[Hands off the star!] I lifted my guitar and flung a secret level on its back. Two scarlet blades extended out from its sides and I soon began smashing through this whirling of lies.

With my masterful swings, I decimated and carved out the mountains of flesh surrounding me. I dashed and flew through the very cosmos with my obsidian blade annihilating everything.

*Floosh*

My body rocketed out of the ocean and into the sky. Rolling through the air, I landed on the ship and tumbled toward my bandmates. Who all had a look of despair and rage on their grimaced face.

However, it wasn't wise for me to stop this show. I flung the back level and hugged my guitar tightly to my stomach. And I strummed. I strummed with all my wits.

The spotlight shined on me.

I was currently lying on the ground covered in blood and glory playing my sanity off at this guitar. And for what reason? Why do we risk our lives performing for these monsters and why do we do it with such jubilant smiles on our faces?

Well, that's because.

With one final pull, I snapped the string right off and ended this long-lasting show. [ Hah hah aah grah! Yeah!] I breathed heavily as I watched the crowd all disappear back into their homes.

I lay there on the ship, observing the stars return to the sky as the rain fell on us. Surrounded by screaming angered bandmates was me. Who was also surrounded by piles of money and artifacts

[Hahahahaah!] I flipped my guitar's levels off and tossed it away from me. [Were rich! Again!]

"You're insane!" Jean rambled at me. "We were this close to dying! All because of your stupid reckless jump!"

"You are an absolute lunatic. This is the last straw! I'm seriously quitting." Bass threw his bass onto me and turned his back towards me.

[Hey hey hey!] I pushed the bass away and I charged at him. [Come on Bass, don't be like that. Can't you see we're rich.]

"Rich? Rich?!" He confronted me with outrage in his eyes and shoved me onto the ground. "We have always been rich Scarlet! It's been 4 years of nonstop performance and sailing. We had enough money to retire whenever for the past two years!"

"But no! You always wanted more! More money and more fame! More time in the spotlight! You wanted to be the star that shined brighter than the abyss of the night."

"But we don't want that. I just want to work a normal job, doing what I want. And this is not what I want. I'm tired Scarlet."

[If rest is what you want then we can always take a break Bass.]

"My name is not bass." With that final sentence, he entered the captain's room.

"It's the same for me, Scarlet. I don't want to do this anymore. We were young back then with dreams and aspirations. And those dreams were achieved. This lifestyle isn't suited for me, I can't keep risking my life for money that we already have. I give up the keyboard. I'm gonna be a crab farmer or something.

[Seriously Jean?]

"Yes." With one quick nod, she entered the captain's room.

[...]

[How's my good buddy Grim doing? You surely agree with me, right?]

"No. I'm going back to my old days. This is goodbye to this band and ship."

Eh.

[You know what! I don't care! I never needed you guys anyway! I'm my own show!]

With no response, he entered the captain's room. After a couple of seconds of silence, a bright light flashed inside the room and then they were gone.

[Damn it... Damn it, Scarlet.]